Ed Sheeran announced on Instagram that he has become a father - and in true rockstar fashion picked an unusual baby name. Photo / AP
It has become almost de rigueur for pop stars to bestow whimsical or, let's be honest, bizarre names on their offspring.
So it is reassuring to hear that Ed Sheeran has followed suit and continued this fine tradition.
The Suffolk-based singer songwriter and his wife Cherry Seaborn have named their daughter Lyra Antarctica.
And by dint of the couple's joint surnames, her full name will be Lyra Antarctica Seaborn Sheeran.
This will no doubt trigger the inevitable playground responses in years to come, confirming again that no matter that they were all once children, parents routinely forget just how cruel they can be.
However, in the meantime the names can be celebrated as both a possible tribute to the writer Philip Pullman, whose heroine in His Dark Materials books and TV adaptation is named Lyra, and a warning of the threat posed by climate change to the world's ice caps.
Announcing the news on Instagram, his first outing on social media since late last year, Sheeran shared a photograph of the baby's cot with a tiny pair of socks and a multi-coloured blanket inside, saying: "Ello! A quick message from me as I have some personal news that I wanted to share with you ... Last week, with the help of an amazing delivery team, Cherry gave birth to our beautiful and healthy daughter – Lyra Antarctica Seaborn Sheeran.
"We are completely in love with her. Both mum and baby are doing amazing and we are on cloud nine over here. We hope that you can respect our privacy at this time. Lots of love and I'll see you when it's time to come back, Ed x."
Fittingly, the name Lyra has links to music as well as astronomy, deriving from the Latin word for lyre, a small harp, and also describing a constellation in the northern sky containing the star Vega. Lyra is a small constellation. It is one of 48 listed by the 2nd-century astronomer Ptolemy, and is one of the 88 constellations recognised by the International Astronomical Union.
Baby Lyra's names have been met with a mixture of genuine joy and bemusement and on that now ubiquitous arbiter of public taste, social media.
One user, Tony Shepherd, posted on Twitter: "Congrats to Ed Sheeran and his wife Cherry on the arrival of their new baby, Lyra Antarctica Seaborn Sheeran. Imagine trying to find a keyring with that on at Blackpool pleasure beach!"
• The oldest of Beyoncé and Jay Z's three children is named Blue Ivy, after the couple's favourite colour. Their younger twins are named Sir Carter and Rumi Carter.
• R&B singer-songwriter Alicia Keys and her husband, the hip-hop artist Swizz Beatz, went with a biblical theme when they named their children Egypt and Genesis.
• Lo-fi singer-songwriter Beck named his son Cosimo Henri Hansen and his daughter Tuesday Hansen.
• David and Angela Bowie's son was known as Zowie Bowie, but went on to change his name to the less unusual Duncan.
• Bob Geldof called his children Fifi Trixibelle, Peaches Honeyblossom, and Little Pixie.
• US singer-songwriter, record producer and actress Erykah Badu's three children are called Seven Sirius Benjamin, Puma Sabti Curry and Mars Merkaba Thedford.
• American rapper and apparent presidential election outsider Kanye West named his first daughter North West. He has since proceeded to call his other three children Psalm West, Saint West and Chicago West.
• R&B singer Usher Raymond has two sons with his ex-wife Tameka Foster, Usher Raymond V and Naviyd Ely Raymond.
• Musician Frank Zappa named his children Moon Unit, Dweezil, Ahmet and Diva.
Another Twitter user, Oilibhia Muirchú, a placement officer at Sligo Volunteer Centre, in Ireland. wrote: "I feel I should warn them it will be a huge bone of contention in later years. They are in for random bouts of serious grumbling."
Not that Lyra will be entirely alone when she grows up.
According to the most recent Office for National Statistics (ONS) data, Lyra was the 150th most popular girl's name in England and Wales last year, appearing 342 times.
Jazz musician Jamie Cullum and former model Sophie Dahl have a daughter called Lyra, born in March 2011.
By contrast there were no babies given this name when the ONS annual records began in 1996.
According to the ONS date, however, no babies have been given the first name Antarctica.
Sheeran was photographed nine months ago in Antarctica wearing a Christmas jumper emblazoned with David Attenborough's face, leading to speculation that is where Lyra Antarctica was conceived.
If so, her naming would follow in the tradition set by the Beckhams, who named their son Brooklyn after the New York borough where they said he was conceived.
Sheeran and his wife married in 2018 in a secret ceremony, but did not confirm the news until weeks later. The couple have known each other since they were friends at school.
New York Times: Gripping new thriller looks at a woman whose life is upended by a novel.